“When I sat and watched Eddie Van Halen play 3ft in front of me in the studio, I learned that it’s about the hands”: Billy Corgan says tone lies in the fingers
Does tone lie in the gear you choose or your fingers? It’s one of the perennial debates in the guitar world, and Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan believes it’s the latter, thanks to an encounter he once had with none other than Eddie Van Halen.
Speaking in the latest issue of Guitarist, Corgan laughs at those who assume he still works exclusively with a Fender Stratocaster into a Big Muff fuzz pedal.
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“That hasn’t been my setup since ‘92!” he says. “I get it, though. It’s such a cool sound. I loved that sound, and I still do. I still use that sound here and there for overdubs because I love the zing of it.”
Corgan reassessed his style when he had the chance to interview Eddie Van Halen for Guitar World in 1996. Eddie had his rig set up, and Corgan had the honour of watching a guitar hero do his thing. “When I sat and watched Eddie Van Halen play 3ft in front of me in the studio, I learned that it’s about the hands,” he says.
“Great guitar players can get the same sound out of any amp; it’s something about the way they play,” he says. “That’s the beautiful thing, right?”
Dipping back into the archives, Eddie himself realised his meeting with Corgan would serve as a vital guitar lesson. In an old clip shared by Guitar World, Eddie recalls: “Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins, he interviewed me once. It was up in the studio and my rig happened to be set up and I was playing.”
The temptation was impossible to resist – so Corgan asked to try out Eddie’s rig. “He walked in, and he kinda nervously said, ‘can I try it?’” Eddie says. “I go ‘sure!’ He turned it up… and it was just uncontrollable for him.”
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With no Big Muff in sight, the Smashing Pumpkins man was in uncharted waters. “He goes, ‘where’s you’re distortion pedal?’” Eddie said. “I go ‘there isn’t one.’”
And that’s when Corgan would learn his most important lesson, from Eddie Van Halen himself: “If you have a great sounding guitar… a good amp… and you know how to make a guitar talk – that’s the key.”
Ever since, Corgan realised that developing a signature tone is a product of quality gear and a unique playing style. “I do play a certain way that’s very strange,” he admits. “I hear it when outside guitar players come into the band. They’ll say, ‘I always thought it was the sound, but it’s actually the way you play that sound that makes the sound that I’m hearing.’”
It’s that same sentiment of Eddie’s, the idea that you need to know “how to make a guitar talk”. It sounds simple, but the way you play really does make all the difference. “It’s hard to explain,” Corgan says. “But I have a very busy left hand, which is something I learned from my father.”
The post “When I sat and watched Eddie Van Halen play 3ft in front of me in the studio, I learned that it’s about the hands”: Billy Corgan says tone lies in the fingers appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
